PATIENTS are waiting longer for hospital appointments in Bolton and more operations are being cancelled because of pressures on services.

In January, 603 people had waited more than nine months for in-patient and day case procedures to be carried out.

A total of 150 operations were cancelled between April last year and January, mainly because there were no beds available for them at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The vast majority of cancellations were in November, December and January when 32 patients were not admitted for their operation within one month of the cancellation.

At a meeting of Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust, Mrs Ann Schenk, director of service development, said the poor performance was down to a number of factors.

An outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting at the end of November, which affected staff and patients, effectively closed a number of wards and coupled with this there was a massive increase in the number of emergency admissions in December and January.

"Theatre sessions were cancelled, wards were closed, and it was a particularly difficult time for everyone," she said.

The trust however has been working on a number of waiting list initiatives to tackle those areas which do not require "certain kinds of beds" - that is those affected by medical emergency admissions - and inroads have been made.

Mr John Brunt, Chief Executive, said the efforts to reduce waiting times reflected the co-operation between clinicians and demonstrated the imagination of managers.

"Although things have started to quieten down on the emergency side, it is still very busy," said Mr Brunt.

"The achievements which are starting to come through are a reflection of the hard work of all departments."

Mr Brunt went on to tell the meeting he felt most pressures would start to be felt in future months within outpatients.

At present there are a handful of specialities, such as orthopaedics, dermatology and rheumatolgy, which have many patients waiting for outpatient appointments.

Mr Brunt said: "I believe that it will be one of the most difficult things we shall have to deal with in the future."

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